|
Return
to D'var Torah Menu
KEDOSHIM
Holiness (Holy One)
30 April 2011
Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Amos 9:7-15 (Ashkenazi Reading)
Ezekiel 20:2-20, 22:1-19 (Sephardic Reading)
1 Peter 1:13-16
This week’s Parasha begins with the command to the B’nei Israel
(Children of Israel) to be “Holy, for I the Lord Am Holy.”
In the short of it, this Parasha deals with Holiness, parents, Shabbat,
and idols. In the long of it, G-d's command for His people “to be holy”
applies to us today (1 Peter1:16-to be holy). This section of scripture
deals with just about every area of our lives: home, time, food,
labor/business, neighbors.
Ephesians 5:1, tells us to be imitators of G-d. We are to walk in love,
as Messiah loved us and gave Himself for us, as an offering and a
sacrifice. The letter to the Ephesians basically describes spiritual
blessings and the responsibilities of His sons and daughters to G-d.
The blessing is that we were chosen and taken into G-d's family, having
forgiveness, eternal inheritance, and given the power to remove even
mountains if we have the faith of a mustered seed.
Our responsibilities are to keep unity so we can benefit all people in
the congregation of Messiah in strengthening, growth and maturing. Thus
all can be holy and walk in purity, imitating G-d's holiness as He
commands. With this unity we can stand strong against evil forces and be
the light or beacon that like a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
This week, beginning Monday, May 2, 2011, begin Holocaust Memorial
events to recall and never forget the murder of six million of our
Jewish people. A million and a half of those were children. How could
this happen? How could a civilized nation afflict such cruelty? Where
did this hatred begin?
For those who want more information there are many books, films, and
articles on what happened. In the past couple of years, Dr. Michael
Brown wrote the book “Our Hand are Stained with His Blood.”
Also an article written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of England
states that anti-Semitism is not an ideology or a coherent set of
beliefs, it is an endless stream of contradictions. He states that the
best way to describe these ways of thinking is to see them as a virus.
Like a virus, anti-Semitism attacks the body, mutates and defeats the
immune system of the cultures to protect against hatred. This “new
anti-Semitism, first took place with the birth of the church after the
death of the apostles. It spread thru the rise of Islam, the crusaders,
thru the middle ages and now emerging against Jews as a nation, the
country of Israel.
G-d's people who have been grafted in (Romans 11:17), and are now a part
of the Commonwealth of Israel, are to be like Him, to provoke the
natural branches (Jewish people) to jealousy so that they could see that
Messiah has come to bring reconciliation between men and G-d. The Hope
of Israel has come and has removed all sin.
Instead of taking on the mission of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-19)
they, the “church” during the time of greatest need, set up a barrier,
so that they showed hatred instead of love. Instead of showing love and
compassion, the middle wall of partition was reinserted. Peace was no
longer spoken. Instead, the sword was used, walls put up in whatever
country the Jewish people went.
During this week, the events of the past are remembered. They culminate
with the 63rd anniversary of the birth of Israel. G-d’s
people are back in their land, just as G-d ordained (Isaiah 66, Ezekiel
37, Amos 9, etc.).
G-d loved His people then and still loves His people, “who are loved for
the sake of the fathers.” We all need to remember well what happened
during the dark days of the holocaust so that we will not keep silent
when such atrocities rear their heads again, as history proves they
will. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing. Do not sit by and do nothing (Edmund Burke). Stand up and be
counted.
Shavua Tov
Rabbi Z.
Return
to D'var Torah Menu |